Tag Archives: Commercial Air Filters

Can a company achieve a lower carbon footprint without high capital costs, or sacrificing workplace comfort? Camfil has shown the answer is “yes.” Companies can achieve a dramatically lower carbon footprint by taking simple steps that not only reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels, but produce significant savings of natural resources, too. You might say our lower carbon footprint saves green as well as green-backs!

Everything we do leaves our mark on the environment. Our goal is to lighten your impact, by bringing to market products such as our 30/30, Hi-Flo and Durafil ES filters, which immediately lower the amount of energy consumed by the HVAC system while they are in service. And because these 5-star premium filters stay in service longer the total number of filters purchased per year – every year – is less. That’s a strategy for lower carbon footprint that pays bottom-line dividends immediately – and continuously.

Using fewer filters is one tangible and critical advantage of Camfil’s “green filter” technology. Using fewer filters means fewer trucks moving product from manufacturing plant to user location. And because there’s a reduction in cartons, fewer trees are cut, and additional fossil fuel and water conservation are achieved through reductions in the manufacturing of cardboard.

A lower carbon footprint is what every environmentally conscious company aspires to now. There are many ways to achieve it. Ours is one of the easiest, and fastest. And it has cost control advantages no other strategy can equal.

To learn more about achieving a lower carbon footprint, talk with your Camfil representative.

According to EPA, Americans generate more than 251 million tons of municipal solid waste annually – the equivalent of 4.6 pounds of waste per person, per day based on 2006 population estimates. Of the various MSW strategies available, source reduction clearly has the greatest long-term potential for lowering America’s waste burden.

Source reduction involves altering the design, manufacture, or use of products to reduce the total volume of discarded material. It includes strategies to reduce filter waste, among many other things. Source reduction is often viewed as more compelling than recycling, since it is the only strategy synonymous with preventing waste, rather than managing it once it’s created.

Longer filter life means there’s less frequent change-out, which immediately lowers labor cost, disposal cost, and dunnage. Our 5-Star premium filters last 50-100% longer than economy products. During a 5-year period, a 24,000 cfm HVAC system using Camfil 5-Star premium filters could reduce filter waste – the number of filters added to the landfill – burden by 56%.

Landfills are a visible reminder of why source reduction should be part of US environmental strategy. They consume up to 3,500 additional acres of land each year and emit significant quantities of methane, an explosive greenhouse gas 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

In Canada, landfills generate over 25% of the methane emissions caused by human activity, sending 1.2 million tons of this gas into the atmosphere each year. Because the global warming effect of methane is 21 times greater than carbon dioxide, this is equal to greenhouse gas emissions from more than six million cars. Clearly, there are compelling reasons to reduce filter waste, and to support initiatives that make filter waste reduction an important part of buying decisions.

Camfil 5-Star premium filters offer longer filter life because the design characteristics (low resistance to airflow, etc.) that produce energy savings, also allow the filter to remain in service longer, without compromising filter performance. In addition, our pleating and media surface area configurations ensure the entire filter pack is fully used in the collection of contaminant, eliminating the risk of premature blinding or failure.

The Total Cost of Ownership for using air filters in your HVAC systems involves several elements, including the filters, installation and removal cost, disposal, and energy. Of these costs, energy is 60-80% of the total.

Buying filters on a unit price basis can save a few dollars up-front, while not doing anything to reduce HVAC costs related to energy.

Camfil filters can reduce HVAC costs by 25-50% vs. standard low cost air filters. Camfil is the world’s largest provider and purchaser of air filter media. Our filtration medias are specifically engineered to reduce HVAC costs for energy.

Filters are manufactured using components and processes developed by Camfil engineers, and built at our own advanced machining center. Years of intensive testing in our laboratories and field installations goes into verifying energy performance for every filter product.

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) software, developed by Camfil in 1992, has helped thousands of customers reduce HVAC costs by choosing the optimum filter.

LCC calculates total cost of ownership based on real life filter performance, rather than simplistic mathematical models. This allows discussions of filter alternatives based on science, rather than guesswork.

Energy – The Air Filter Impact

North American businesses spend $450 billion annually for energy.

About 60% of that – $270 billion – is HVAC-related.

If all these facilities used Camfil filters to reduce HVAC costs, and energy was reduced by 10%, $27 billion would be saved every year.

World energy consumption is projected to increase 40-50% by 2010 (US Dept. of Energy).

Camfil, developer of “completely green” air filters that give users five distinct environmental and cost advantages, has joined the US Green Building Council (USGBC) at the Product Manufacturer Level.

USGBC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community of industry leaders committed to making “green” buildings universally available within a generation.

Camfil has a strong history of participation in organizations such as ASHRAE and the Institute of Environmental Sciences & Technology. Camfil offers its expertise to applicable factions of the USGBC, concentrating on improving indoor air quality and saving energy.

One area of concentration will be the Indoor Air Quality Procedure as defined in ASHRAE Standard 62.1. Another, longer-term goal of Camfil’s participation is to educate industry professionals regarding the ECI (Energy Cost Index) and Life Cycle Costing as effective and immediate ways to reduce energy use, while maintaining highest rated efficiency throughout the life of the filter.

Camfil is the only filter manufacturer to guarantee the energy-saving performance of its filters. It is also unique in providing a fully-equipped mobile lab to test pre-filter and final filter combinations under local temperature, humidity and contaminant conditions.

How can you be sure that you have selected the best air filter for your application?

Industry test reports and material in manufacturers’ literature or packaging may be a good start, but will they provide a true indication of a filter’s value over its entire service life, in your system? After all, that’s what matters. (In fact, it’s the only thing that does matter!)

Unfortunately the testing method used today is an accelerated test – performed in a matter of hours, and not very indicative of how the filter may perform over a matter of months or years in your AHU.

Some manufacturers use filter enhancements to trick the test into indicating an efficiency level that in actual application can degrade very quickly. Their literature may even portray the filters’ performance based only upon this accelerated test data, a marketing decision that is misleading – or worse.

Enter the Energy Cost Index or ECI. This filter rating system examines the filter’s efficiency over its service lifetime, as well as the energy required to move air through that specific filter.

ECI compares filters of similar construction, under the same conditions of operation and provides an indicator of TRUE performance. Specifically, the formula is dollars per percent of filter efficiency. The lower the value, the better the filter.

A filter with an ECI of five stars is a stellar performer. It maintains its efficiency over its life and uses less energy to move air through the filter. It is in the top 20% of all filters evaluated. A four-star filter has a lower ECI value, and the pattern continues down to one star, the poorest performers.

The Camfil filters described on this website are all 5-star performers, designed to deliver the greatest value in energy savings, air quality, waste reduction and environmental impact.

Coarse fiber (synthetic) media is cheaper than fine fiber (microfiber glass) media. In some cases the cost differential may be as high as 20%, sometimes passed on in more competitive pricing to the user.

But should cost be ‘the factor’ when the #1 priority of most users is indoor air quality? Shouldn’t the prime consideration be the life cycle cost of the product, with an emphasis on achieving the best possible air quality at reasonable cost?

The chart below shows the results of media evaluation using a Mobile Media Tester.

Included in this analysis is a discharging step that simulates loading of media during normal HVAC service. This discharging step is already in place in European filter testing standards and was recently adapted as an option to current ASHRAE filter testing Standards.

Note that the fine fiber media products (shades of green) have an efficiency of around 70% in three different product configurations. Note the coarse fiber medias charged (initial) efficiency (shades of orange) and the same media in a discharged state (shades of blue).

The end user is expecting 70% removal efficiency in this critical respirable particle range, with historical performance increasing over the life of the filter. How many end users would purchase this product knowing that performance will actually decrease over the life of the product?

CamTester is an advanced field testing device. Actual pressure drop and airflow for various filter products can be compared for real-life verification of performance. Many customers use CamTester to compare with lab testing data and vendor literature claims. We welcome these comparisons!

How do air filters perform under real conditions? Do filters perform as well as their literature claims? How do filters differ from each other, in terms of pressure drop at time of installation vs. weeks later, structural integrity, dust-loading uniformity and other factors? The mobile filter testing lab has proved to be an invaluable tool for testing various filters simultaneously under identical ambient conditions, (RH%, temp, air flow, etc). for extended periods of time.

The mobile filter testing lab has four separate ducts, each of which has a pre-and fine filter section, and a separately controlled fan. Measured values from all filter steps, orifices, temperature and relative humidity are logged continuously. Logged values can be retrieved on site, or via wireless modem.

The mobile filter testing lab can be sited anywhere there’s an electrical connection. Four combinations of filters can be tested at the same time. The mobile filter testing lab can provide article, stub and gas measurements. It is an excellent tool for generating objective and scientifically valid data regarding one of the most important recurring purchases companies make.

Case in Point

One of the nation’s largest independently-owned food retailers, with more than 300 stories, changed their existing filters based on pressure drop every two months. Several of the stores were persuaded to convert to the 30/30 air filter, and as a direct result,extended filter life to four months.

This caught the attention of management, which summoned the mobile filter testing lab to its San Antonio, Texas corporate office for evaluation. In an unusual double-blind study, the 30/30s were tested against two competitors.

After two months, the 30/30 demonstrated a 50% advantage on pressure drop compared to one competitor. The second competitor’s filter was disqualified when it suffered particle breakthrough and structural collapse.